Yo, this is Void. In lieu of the recent Dirk and Dave interactions in our UPD8's (28/6/15) I have taken it upon myself to rewrite/revamp golgothasTerror's original A Guide to Dirk. Through my extrapolation and synthesizing of godtiers (In particular, the 'Prince of Heart'), Dirk's behaviors/quirks, and god knows what else, I believe that GT's original post for Dirk does hold some validity, but no longer fully represents the Dirk Strider we've come to know, love, hate, and then love again.
Any quotes/phrases/relevant bits of information you find in red are from GT's Guide, and I feel, still hold validity for Dirk's character. Any other colored quotes I'll link for their respective posts/comments.

There are four 'known' versions of Dirk. Dirk (himself), AR, Ghost Dirk, and Bro.

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LESSON ONE: THE GATSBY OF HOMESTUCK

Dirk has references to Plato, to Timeaus, of course, to Bro, to Problem Sleuth, to just about everything. This kid has so many references and symbolism behind him, he's like the Gatsby of Homestuck, if the story was stuck on repeat.

To put it quickly- Dirk Strider is a very intelligent, reference-riddled young man, who tries to mimic a culture long past, and who tries to basically live centuries in the past. A lot of this symbolism you have to keep in mind while you're writing Dirk, because half of it is what makes him seem so smart- Here's a small sampling from both GT and the Wikia page.

His chumhandle is most likely a reference to Plato's dialogue, Timaeus, which discusses the demiurge, a god-like being who created the universe as a sort of living creature. The Timaeus dialogue, alongside Critias, also introduces the mythology behind Atlantis.

Dirk's denizen, Yaldabaoth, has been described as a demiurge, and happens to be the self-proclaimed god of all monsters.

Dirk has a map of Atlantis in his room. And when his first name is finally revealed, it's noted that the last two letters of "Dirk" are diluvian (relating to floods). This is because r and k are the last two letters of "Ark" and Atlantis is often referred to as the "Antediluvian World".

Timaeus is also a biblical character in the Gospel of Mark who is the father of a man whose blindness was cured by Jesus.

Dirk and his AR take upon traits that are mentioned of triangles in Timaeus. Actually, a vast majority of the Timaeus covers the subject of triangles and Dirk's glasses were originally sculpted as a call back to that. Then the anime fans came in and made a note of Kamina's sweet shades.

Dirk in Chinese is "德克" (de ke) which is the same character for Texas. This was either intentional or a very happy accident.

While Dirk has many philosophical and religious references (Homestuck is riddled with them), they are particularly sophisticated references, that you should keep in mind while you are roleplaying as Dirk. He's not some pretty gay boy for you to throw at Jake or Dave- He was purposely given one of the toughest Denizens because he was considered an advanced player. Dirk is serious shit, not to be taken lightly.

Speaking of being serious shit, Dirk ranks high on the scale of 'Serious Shit You Need To Pay Attention To'. Though the updates of the past two months, it was revealed that Dirk was more or less, a splinter of the main villain in Homestuck- Banishing ARquius, Caliborn, and half of Gamzee into Lil' Cal, Dirk creates the main villain; if he's conscious or not of his own actions is still to be determined.

More than likely, however, Dirk is fully aware of what he's done. He's always aware, for the most part. He's a very introspective fellow, and seems to be able to tell just what's wrong with him before anyone else can figure it out.

Being alone in an apartment in the middle of the sea for 16 years can really fuck with you. It leaves Dirk in a lot of emptiness, with time to contemplate his own existence, and the existence of his bro, 'Dave'. In the most recent update, Dave fully discloses the abuse he's had at Bro's hands, to which Dirk feels incredibly guilty, even though Dave adamantly tries to suggest that Dirk is not his beta 'Bro'; that Dirk shouldn't feel like he's responsible for how his alternate self acts.

Dirk admits that he had often thought of what it would be like if 'Alpha Dave' were around as he was growing up, and it illustrates just how lonely Dirk was, growing up. It's reminiscent to how Eridan grew up, except Eridan didn't have to synthesize a past culture to learn from. Dirk is basically self taught, self raised, and had so much time on his hands, he had to resort to thinking and fantasizing and daydreaming all day to stave off boredom. He doesn't fully understand how to connect to people, and it often throws a wrench into his interactions.

Dirk has a tendency to internalize and bottle his feelings up. He rarely speaks out on them unless prompted by someone, i.e. Jane or Dave, which also causes his relationship with Jake to fail. His communication was either too much or too little, and ultimately ended up alienating Jake.

Aka, He fell for another male from a different time period who could not possibly reciprocate feelings at the level he did, and his affection for this male caused the destruction of the relationship when it inevitably occurred. Dirk full well knew his relationship was failing, but continued to bottle his feelings anyway, waiting until Jake attempted to coerce '(Dirk) into marrying him', during Trickster mode, where Dirk broke off their relationship. This was precedented by Jake avoiding Dirk, and Dirk speaking to Jane about the situation, granted, it was very poor timing on his part.

Because of this, Dirk is a very 'avoidant' person. He never uses absolutes- rather, he uses words like 'kinda, sorta' and 'maybe'. It's rare that he personally messages someone (if he's referred them to AR), normally people page him, if they want to speak to him. While this is happening, he is almost always parsing out the beneficial information, and keeping it in mind for later,

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LESSON THREE: BATTLE BROTOCOL: THE PRINCE OF HEART AND HIS NONSENSE PANTS

To quote Dahni's Homestuck Godtier Interpretation,
"Dirk is the Good yet Struggling example, but he’s definitely on the right path. A Prince of Heart would be challenged to not let themselves be destroyed by, well, themselves. They would be challenged to not let themselves be destroyed by their emotions, desires or impulses. Dirk does a very good job with this, almost always keeping a handle on himself and not letting his desires run him. But he’s struggles because he created AR, which is essentially Dirk’s soul in a robot body, and boy does AR do a lot to fuck things up for Dirk emotionally, intentionally or not. AR could have ruined his friendships, his relationship with Jake and made him question who he was and why he did things. Dirk eventually gave in to AR to make ARquiussprite, and we’ve yet to see how good or bad that’s going to play out, but I believe because AR merged his soul with Equius he has become even less like a copy of Dirk’s soul and become more his own person. Thus he should become less of a threat to Dirk, and more like an exasperation. All in all though, I believe Dirk to be the Good example, even if he did struggle quite a bit in the beginning."

If you delve more deeply into Dirk's psyche, you'll notice the relationship between Dirk and being a 'Prince of Heart' is more grounded along the lines of being 'challenged to not let themselves be destroyed by their emotions, desires or impulses'. Dirk does a very good job with this, almost always keeping a handle on himself, although he does slip, letting his desires run him (I.e. relationship with Jake), but he retains his 'Dirk'ness, by remaining introspective and mindful of who he is.

Dirk is a character who 'avoids' being specific or giving a full answer. He has a very hard time coming up with a specific answer. This sort of mirrors how he 'avoids' his temptations; avoiding is Dirk's nature. But as of the last UPD8, we see character development out the wazoo. Dirk actually confronts his feelings about Dave and refuses to let the buck go any further. It gives us an excellent insight to how he is an introspective person- even if he internalizes some of his split selves, and tries to atone for them.

I adamantly feel as if Heart, Hope, Rage, and Doom godtiers have their aspects play into their characters more directly, than per say someone who deals with Space or Void- And Dirk (by extension, the Leijons) are actually incredible examples of this. We need to remember that heart not only encompasses souls, but also deals with personalities, with relationships, with the philosophical, if you will.

Perhaps Dirk isn't quite as brain-centric as once thought; his being, his personality, his symbolism, all points directly to philosophy, the being of oneself- Something Dave seems to initially lack, and now seems to be coming to terms with. Dave was seemed to be repressed by Bro, a Prince of Heart. It would make sense for Bro to be a failed Prince of Heart, destroying Dave's personality, his philosophy, and initially manipulating Dave into reluctantly (ironically) loving Bro and Cal. Bro gave in to his vices (Cal) and really really hurt Dave in the process.

LESSON FOUR: GREEN-EYES-PEELED-FOR-BLUE-LOOKERS-NUDE.COM OR: THE MESS THAT IS THE ENGLISH/STRIDER RELATIONSHIP

The number one thing that peeves me the most about both Jake English AND Dirk Strider roleplayers, is the blatant disregard for how their canon relationship ended. It's pretty much on par with Kurloz and Meulin's relationship. I feel like I need to itemize my points.

Dirk broke up with Jake.

DIRK broke up WITH JAKE.

DIRK BROKE UP WITH JAKE.

But in all seriousness, Dirk broke up with Jake. Their relationship was very much so an enigma to us, and very little of it was brought to the forefront of our view. For the most part, all we know is that most of the alpha kids had a crush on Jake, and Roxy was the only one to bow down and out, to preserve her friendship with Jane and Dirk. Simultaneously, when Jake asks Jane about how she feels about him, she basically panics and shuts him down, alluding that her feelings are stronger than initially shown.

Then we get thrown for a loop in a time skip, where Jake has begun avoiding Dirk.

Quoted from the Wikia: "He and Jake were revealed to be dating for some months after entering the medium, although shortly after Jake had been somewhat hesitant on the relationship due to perceiving Dirk as being too overbearing as a boyfriend. Upon being confronted by trickster Jake's proposal to group marry him and once engaging in a failed version of trickster mode himself, Dirk breaks up with Jake. Dirk guesses that his intense advances towards him were partially initially because Jake was the only romantic target due to his orientation. However, later on he shows remorse for the way he broke up with him, and partially takes the blame for their problems by saying "my insanity scared him right the fuck off." Jake later says says he regrets how he acted towards Dirk and how it led to their eventual break up, saying that he "should have come clean about wanting some space." "

Yes, Dirk was overbearing, and kind of a chump about the relationship. But the thing is, Dirk had been alone for 15-16 years, stranded in a high rise apartment above a rolling sea. This was Dirk's first relationship, and we know that he didn't fully understand how to socialize. However, he understands that Jake wants space, and will most likely avoid Jake for the time being, most likely until after this grand battle ends- That is, if both parties live through it.

Quoted from the Wikia, "Dirk's previous interest and relationship with Jake as well as this conversation where Dirk refers to the respective orientations of Jane and himself confirms him to only have an interest in the same sex. He goes on to call Jake the only viable romantic target for him out of their group, and suggests that may be the reason for his infatuation with him. Roxy frequently refers to him to things like 'SUCH a gay dude' and has mentioned him being 'a guy who dont like girls', though he said that he prefers not to label his sexuality."

Even if Dirk -IS- gay (personally, I headcanon him to be more asexual), he has a conservative personality, and will not openly flounce and act effeminately towards Jake or another male. He's still Dirk, after all. He just happens to like dick on the side, but it is in no part his personality. If you use a sexuality to describe someone, you're doing it wrong.

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CONCLUSION

Dirk is a very complex character that takes someone who's done their research to handle. Finding a good Dirk player is like finding a unicorn; they're rare as fuck, most are fake, and if you do find one...

ANYWAY, if you've fought your way through this comprehensive guide, congrats. I've spent way too much time on this, lmao. ANYWAY, GOOD LUCK ROLEPLAYING, AND IF I SEE ANY OF Y'ALL PUTTING THIS GOOD MAN TO SHAME, I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL RIP YOU A NEW ONE. In the most platonic way possible.

((P.S. Yes, I know I didn't mention his rap, robots, or anything like that... I tried to disconnect from those influences to dig at what Dirk is REALLY like, removed from that stuff.))

THIS IS AMAZING! DirkJade is my brOTP, and it's because of this I have a desire to learn how to RP Dirk. However, I have never been able to find a character guide that describes him so deeply, detailedly, accurately and passionately.